Spotlight Sounds; Episode Thirteen with Van Gone

Welcome back to Spotlight Sounds, a series by Secrets Behind the Sound celebrating the vibrant world of Irish music. Dive into the blend of tradition and innovation that characterises Ireland's contemporary music scene, featuring both established and emerging artists. Explore the influences and experiences shaping Irish musicians and join us as we delve into their creative processes, stories, and journeys. Through in-depth discussions, Secrets Behind The Sound recognises the groundbreaking contributions of Irish artists to global creativity. Whether you're a long-time fan or a newcomer, Spotlight Sounds invites you to explore the captivating realm of Irish music—a journey into the stories, sounds, and enigmas that make up Ireland's music scene.

Introducing Van Gone, a rising force in the Irish music scene with roots firmly planted in Galway. Formed in May 2023, this quartet comprising Iarla on guitar, Dara Naughton on guitar and vocals, Cassie on bass, and Jamie Costello on drums, has wasted no time in making waves with their electrifying performances. With a sound that seamlessly blends ethereal shoegaze with Psychedelic Progressive Rock, Van Gone captivates audiences with their dynamic energy and sonic landscapes. Following the success of their debut single, Self Medicate, the band returns with their latest release, Healthy High, promising another exhilarating journey through swirling guitars, pounding drums, and haunting vocals. As they continue to build momentum and a growing fanbase, Van Gone is undoubtedly a band to watch as they carve their path through the Irish music scene, one electrifying gig at a time.

Can you start by introducing yourself and your musical background?

I'm Iarla, I play guitar for Van Gone. The other members of the band are Dara Naughton, he also plays guitar and sings, and then Cassie Clark on bass, and Jamie Costello on drums. My musical background would be of always trying new things, I grew up in a very musical family, everyone is very into music. I had massive exposure to it growing p with gigs and massive amounts of CDs and tapes and stuff lying around, and didn't even grow up with a tv or anything. My only entertainment would be books and whatever album I wanted to put in the stereo system. I used to always just walk around with melodies in my head and sounds and stiff like that.

Then I would always change what genre I was into as a teenager and stuff like that. So for ages I just really wanted to be a producer, like for kind of electronic music, a bit of hip-hop, that kind of stuff. But I always found myself being very experimental with it and so then I got back into the more kind of rock stuff and listened to that and then over Covid I picked up the guitar and just, you know, I approached it very much from a sonic perspective of I have a certain sound I want to make and whatever it takes to kind of create that, that's what I did and then I've continued to apply that to Van Gone.

How would you define the genre you as an artist primarily identify with, and how do you incorporate other influences into your sound?

Well all of us have our own kind of style that we're into and I guess the overlap is the sound that comes out of Van Gone. So as a blanket term maybe for the genre it just would be rock, people say alternative rock and you know like that's valid but as well it's kind of like people throw those labels around you know. Our genre as a band is pretty fluid within the bounds of kind of rock based stuff. So from song to song it can kind of change but there is a lot of consistent influences from alternative rock, noise rock, progressive rock, shoe gaze, that kind of stuff, a little bit of metal, I mean anything really. Like anytime we write stuff someone might point out, hey that sounds a lot like X artists or Y artist, and then you's say, oh well it's not what we were going for but you're not wrong, you know, so it could be very broad really.

As an Irish artist, is your music influenced by any other Irish artist/band?

Yeah, for sure. Monotypes would be a big one. Primarily for me anyway they would have been, not that I was aspiring to sound like Monotypes or anything like that, but it was that I had these little dreams of kind of being a musician and it just never seemed realistic until I saw them playing and it kind of just sparked something in me. And then, of course, through producing with Tristus Boyd for the album and stuff, we actually grew quite close to him and the other members of Monotypes as well, but particularly Tristus, we were realising there's a lot of overlap there. I won't speak for the others, but for me personally there's a lot of the same kind of musical DNA in there. Similar sounds, like we love kind of weird dissonance and weird noises and being loud and just harsh, but blending that in with good songwriting and catchiness and not neglecting melody and just trying to keep a balance within all of that contrast, you know, and at the core of that it's the same.

Can you walk us through the creative process when writing and composing music?

Dara or I would write something and we'll send it to each other. And then we'll kind of build on that. Dara has always been very goof at playing guitar and then coming up with the lyrics to go along with it. He has lust this massive vault of well written lyrics that he can just access, and then instantly just have an amazing melody written. I've seen that guy, just, I could be playing something like improvising and he'll sing the perfect melody within 10 seconds. And then that'll become a song that we've been able to play for six months. It doesn't much vary from that.

My songwriting style is very much vocal as well, even though I just play guitar. I very much approach it as I'll be practising, say technique and that kind of stuff, just the things you need to keep on top of, and then I will venture off into just playing around and stuff but quickly identifying a progression and a melody within it and building it until it's catchy. And then if I play something I really liked, I'll say, "ohh I liked that", let me rewind 30 seconds, I'll play that. Then I'll just muscle memorise that, and build, I like to compose several sections of a song. And then record that. And then I'll wait. And if the next day, it's stuck in my head, I know it's good. And then Dara might say okay that's cool i have something for that. And then we're rehearsing. Jamie on drums, Cass will come up with a baseline and we'll write a song. And Dara maybe will or won't add his own guitar part, we might take away something or not. It's all about just serving the song.

It's very much about me and Dara, we kind of just vibe off each other. It's almost like finishing each other's sentences in a way and, oftentimes, he'll come in here and then I'll just play over his guitar or learn what he is playing.

It's been an evolving process. Because when we started off in the summer, in July, and it was just kind of for giggles. As a side project, this whole thing. And then I remember Jamie, who was working in Pavilion at the time, he rang us up and he said, I just got us a gig in Aras na Gael in a week, like nine days. And everyone was freaking out. Like, Jamie, we have not even one song here. So we locked ourselves in here for hours every day for six days straight. And we wrote half an hour's worth of songs and they went quite well. And if it wasn't for that, I don't think anything would've happened, so yeah, gotta give massive credit to Jamie. But that isn't the sort of songwriting process we do anymore. It used to be, we'll come up with something rough and see how it does at a gig, then we'll improve it. But ever since we started recording the album, it's very much in terms of how it will sound on that record.

In your opinion, what role do live performances and venues play in the Irish music scene today?

I definitely think it's largely community based. Because while in Ireland, we're blessed to have such great communities, and people are very tightly knit. And for some people, they don't love that. But I think overall, it's very important, but I can't speak for other bands. But I think in general, if they're experiencing the same thing as us, they're playing shows and noticing the same people coming to nine out of ten of their shows, thinking, okay, the fact that anyone actually likes this stuff is giving me a little bit of fuel to keep going.

Then, there's also the fact that you are reaching an audience and you're seeing them in the flesh, and you're seeing their faces, and you're listening to the music with them. Rather than, you guys could be on the opposite end of the world listening and we'd never know. That's cool.

But yeah, live performances is just a different way of engaging and feeling the music and you're getting new fans through it. And its just a fun experience, it can be stressful, obviously, but overall, if you're making music, I think you should be showing it to people in person. Whether that's once a year, fine, or twice a week, whatever, whatever is good for you.

But I think it's important to do it sometimes. because it is very rewarding.

Supporting people is also a chance for you as a band or an artist to say, hey this could be a band or artist that has potential. It's about sharing music at the end of the day, because anyone can send a link. And people will ignore it, or people won't bother or say they'll check it later. But when you're there and you see them live, and it's almost like you're forced to witness this, you know, if the music is good, the music is good. And you're gonna leave there with at least one more person listening to your stuff.

Variety is an important aspect of any music scene. How do you think your music contributes to the variety of the Irish music scene?

I would say our music is bridging the gap between this kind of sound that people think only exists in the past of music. It's kind of this romanticised idealists, like, oh, this decade was so much better than this one on the right. In reality, it wasn't. And you can't say that just because of how someone's guitar sounds. But, of course, music did sound great back in the day. So we value that and we're trying to bring back some more vintage production techniques and sounds. For me, when I was kind of designing mine and Dara's guitar sounds, i had a lot of older sounds in mind, because I think I don't love when people copy other artists sounds and music, but there is a certain amount of audio and production techniques that have just been shown to work. If you get those basics down, you can start to create your own variation of it.

So, for me, I was kind of just like, okay, I'm gonna create a baseline sound. So then when we go up on stage, we sound cohesive, and like a unit and then, from there, I would go home and I'd have these sounds in my head for each song and I think, Okay I need to tweak this or not to make it sound unique. Of course, it's not totally unique, but as much as I could do so.

In terms of Sonics, we are trying at least to contribute to variation and that in terms of what's on the scene today. And then in terms of the music itself, it's unique I think. It's got elements of things you've heard before, all music is derivative, every once in a while you get some phenomenon that comes around, but something entirely new is rare. We're nowhere near that, we're not going to ever claim that. But, I think it's enough variation to be considered at least a little bit of contribution.

It's trying to keep our core sound to be identifiable without just getting comfortable in repetitive chord progressions and the same exact song writing every time and just being formulaic. We don't like formula at all. So it's kind of just not formulaic music.

As an Irish artist , what advice have you got for other artists trying to navigate the industry and find their unique voice?

I think you just need to give it a shot. First of all, I think it's very easy to start overthinking. I don't like to phrase overthinking, it's good to think about what you do. But it's very easy to start putting in heaps of research and looking online for, Okay how do I get a start? And how do I do this, because after a certain point, you kind of reach a sort of plateau where you just start getting a massive amount of conflicting opinions. And even if you're not an anxious person, that's going to make you very anxious.

But yeah, you just need to try because that one gig, the first gig we did in Aras was, looking back at it, it wasn't a great gig, but we've played some good gigs after it and they wouldn't have happened without that. It's like learning how to walk. Imagine if you were a toddler, if every time you fell when you were trying to get up on your feet, you were extremely insecure about it, you would have never left the cot in order to see. You have to approach it with this kind of childlike curiosity and naivety is great as well.

But it's very hard. It's so much easier said than done. I mean, it took a lot to get me on stage writing music, even showing people like even coming in and being like, "Hey guys, I wrote this, what do you think of this?"

But yeah, my advice is just go for it. Just try get some focus on serving the songs. And if you have something unique, that you believe in, push it and do it and just give it a go.

If you if you sound good or interesting, or your newest, like musicians, especially you're gonna say I've never seen these people before I come in here. And you never know who's going to be in that room. But who's spoken to who? You know, if you just never tried, it's not gonna happen. And the end of the day, I'm nervous before every gig even to this day, like just as nervous as the first time. But I never die. And I've never gotten ridiculed or anything like that. You build it up in your head, like something like that's gonna happen, and it never does.

What can listeners expect from you in the near future? Any upcoming releases, collabs or projects you’re excited about?

Well, this upcoming album, you can expect it to be. It's quite a journey, I wouldn't suggest listening to it on shuffle, we definitely wrote the songs with the other songs in mind and they kind of they fade into each other. And there's, there's a concept behind this album. And it does follow a very kind of loose storyline and theme. But I'd recommend either stereo speakers or headphones, sitting down and listening to it, because there's a lot of stuff going on that you just won't get from your phone.

In terms of the songs themselves, there's quite a lot on the album. I mean, you're going to hear one song that sounds different to the other, and then maybe an interlude and that kind of stuff. But I think overall, the Van Gone sound is there. It's quite experimental, very dynamic. And I think our music is always going to be very dynamic.

And then in terms of after this album, we've got quite a lot of songs written and some are ready to be recorded. And we do intend on doing that. Because, for me, recording music, I would do it all day. If I had to pick between recording music and gigging or anything, I would just record all day. It's very fun. We're doing it for fun. And we'll release it because we just want people to experience the fun we had and everyone's going to experience it differently. So I'd expect evolution without abandoning kind of where we came from.

I am going to finish off by asking you, what has been the most surreal moment of your musical career so far?

Well, the whole thing is quite surreal. But I would say most of all, and this isn't anything crazy, but I just remember the first song we ever recorded was self medicate. The first one we put out, and I just remember we had it written. And we were playing rehearsals and we had a very low quality demo recording of it on my phone in this exact room, literally just a drum kit there. I mean, there's amps here. And we knew it was pretty cool. But it wasn't anything too crazy. And then, just remember, Tristus from Monotypes, like I said earlier, was quite inspirational and motivational, you know, again, from just getting out there perspective. He was like, you have to record this with me. You guys have to do this. Like, I want you to know that. And I just remember thinking like, straight away, it was just like, really, but what about this flaw and this flaw and that flaw and that flaw? And that flaw? And we're all like, okay, I guess we have to do this. And then I remember that was very exciting. And then, yeah, we spent the whole day recording it in a studio.

I just remember watching each layer build up, I remember starting off with me, in there recording a rough track on acoustics. And just to get the scratches down, and then Jamie coming in with the drums. And then Dara coming in with his guitar, and the memory of me adding my guitar, the harmonies and the ambience and the verses. And then I remember clicking on the Big Speakers and just the distortion pedals and just adding layers and double tracking different guitars. And I suppose like, every time Tristus would press play out of his monitor speakers, I was listening to this idea become the actual song, bit by bit, and then we added the bass.

 And then I remember sitting out and it was getting dark, I was sitting out doing a little bit of college work outside of the recording room. Dara was in there to record his vocals. And at that point, it was all in his headphones and stuff. So I didn't know what was happening. And then I remember Dara came out and he was like, he couldn't really talk. He had just this scared look on his face. He's like, You guys need to hear this. Just is just press play, blasted the song at us. And I just felt like it wasn’t us, I felt like some other band recorded that in secret copying us. Like this sounds unbelievable. Yeah, and this isn't even mixed, or anything. And I was like, we have to do this and Dara was like, I gotta go talk to him. We're gonna do an album. And then yeah, and when we did the album, that was the most surreal moment was just hearing what's in your head 99% accurately replicated on a computer, it through speakers is by someone that knows what they're doing. I mean, it's just a different level of surreal that you just have to experience it.

If you're a musician, and you have sounds flying around your head all the time. You know, you can't replicate it at all, in any way, really, by yourself. I would just recommend, like, at least one time, invest in a good producer, like what we did and hear what what can become a bit because that's going to remain, you know, on Earth. It's the footprint of that is there forever, and no one is ever going to experience what you felt during it for the first time.

But they might get 50% of that. And that's enough, because 50% is something as cool as that. It's just, you know, amazing. So that was definitely the most surreal moment. Maybe close second was when we put that out the next gig after it. Everyone's saying the lyrics to it in the crowd. I mean, that was surreal for me and everyone else, but I mean, for Dara, that must have been the major trip. Like I don't know how we kept singing there. I probably wouldn’t have. I probably would have collapsed. I don't know how he kept going.

We Keep Missing Each Other by Van Gone is available to stream on all platforms now!

Photo credits; Brendan Faherty and Caoimhe Huges